A New American League Starts This Year
Every so often an American professional football league attempts to challenge the might of the National Football League and they inevitably fail. The World Football League tried to compete by featuring games played in Europe during the Fall and that only last a season or two. Probably the most notable of all of the NFL challengers was the United States Football League otherwise known as the USFL. With high profile owners such as Donald Trump and future NFL Hall of Fame talent such as quarterback Jim Kelly the USFL looked like it may give the NFL a run for its money. But after three years and millions of dollars of debt the USFL folded up shop and left the NFL standing alone once again. A few years ago wrestling billionaire Vince McMahon tried his hand at professional football and started the Xtreme Football League or the XFL. McMahon did not try and compete head to head with the NFL as his league played during the summer months but the specter of the NFL loomed large over the XFL and the XFL television ratings plummeted to the point where McMahon closed down his league after only one season. Now enters the United Football League otherwise know as the UFL. With a flashy logo and league colors that look much like the color scheme of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks the UFL announced recently that it will begin play in October of 2009 which will put it squarely in competition with the NFL. It is a four team league with franchises in Las Vegas, New York, Orlando and Sacramento that has many skeptics already signing the bankruptcy papers for UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue. But the reported death of the UFL may be premature when you look at the way they are going about structuring their league and when you consider their timing. The UFL is taking a similar approach to the USFL in that it is attempting to employ personnel that football fans will recognize. The UFL franchises do not even have names yet but they do have some very high profile head coaches. Former NFL head coach and coordinator Ted Cottrell will coach in New York, former head coach of the New York Giants Jim Fassel will coach in Las Vegas, very popular former NFL head coach Dennis Green will coach in San Francisco, and former head coach and NFL star player Jim Haslett will coach in Orlando. No one is certain what kind of players the UFL will start off with but there is obviously a plan in place to try and pull some talent from the NFL and the NFL owners may be the ones supplying the talent directly to the UFL. In 2011 the NFL collective bargaining agreement runs out and the NFL owners have threatened to lock the players out until the dispute is resolved. If the UFL manages to survive until 2011, and add a few more franchises, then there will be places for many of these NFL stars to play if there is a lock out. Would that be enough to keep that NFL caliber talent in the UFL? The owners of the new league are counting on it. For more information on football, visit http://footballmicroblog.com and http://footballmicroblogging.com
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